Stranger Things SEASON THREE is in the works – here's what's in store ✨

Stranger Things only returned to our screens for its second season lin October, but everyone is already talking about season three - and as you can expect, there is a lot of speculation about what's in store. But here's what we know about Stranger Things 3 so far...

Netflix

Is it definitely happening?

YASSSSS! Netflix officially greenlit a third season for Stranger Things on December 1st, which isn't a huge surprise - especially following success of the second season.

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The show creators, The Duffers Brothers confirmed that work is in “very early days on season three and we’re still figuring it out.”

While discussing the second season earlier this year, the Duffer brothers revealed that they had so many ideas that they've already got stuff lined up for season three.

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"As the episodes were written by the Duffers, they realised that there was too much story for nine episodes. So it forced us to be judicious in which stories we tell this season," executive producer Shawn Levy told Mashable. "So one of the surprises was, not all of our grand ideas are going to be serviced in one season... If we had 40 ideas going into the season, 30 [we] are going to pick, and the rest go in the back of our head for, hopefully, future chapters."

In fact the creators have even teased a fourth series while executive producer, Levy has hinted there could be a fifth.

Speaking to EW, Levy said: "Hearts were heard breaking in Netflix headquarters when the brothers made four seasons sound like an official end, and I was suddenly getting phone calls from our actors' agents. The truth is we're definitely going four seasons [sic] and there's very much the possibility of a fifth. Beyond that, it becomes I think very unlikely."

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Ross Duffer added: "If we're able to, there will be at least four, there could be more. I think there's going to come a point where why aren't these people leaving Hawkins? Like we're going to stretch credibility. It wasn't intended to be a seven-season thing."

When will the release date be?

Judging by the release dates between the first and second seasons, we predict season three will hit Netflix in late 2018 or even 2019 as some of the key cast members are rumoured to be involved in upcoming Hollywood flicks.

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Millie Bobby Brown has been already confirmed to star in Godzilla: King of Monsters (which is already in its post-production stages) while Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) is starring alongside Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams in 2018 film The New Mutants.

It won't just be set in Hawkins...

One of the major highlights of season two was the episode titled'The Lost Sister' which saw Eleven branch out of Hawkins and head to Chicago to find her telekinetic sister, Kali (aka Eight). This established a storyline outside of Hawkins which is likely to be revisited - especially since Eleven and Eight have unfinished business.

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"It feels weird to me that we wouldn't solve [Kali's] storyline," Matt Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter. "I would say chances are very high she comes back."

The Mind Flayer isn't done with the kids just yet...

The final episode Stranger Things 2 may have seen Eleven shut the gate on the Mind Flayer, but according the Duffer Brothers, that isn't the end of it. "They’ve shut the door on the Mind Flayer, but not only is it still there in the Upside Down, it’s very much aware of the kids, and particularly Eleven," they revealed. "It had not encountered her and her powers until that final episode. Now, it knows that she’s out there. We wanted to end on a little bit of an ominous note."

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It will be more about the characters and their individual storylines

As much as we loved all the creepiness of the Upside-Down, future seasons are keeping the characters front and centre.

"As much density of story as our show has, we have to service the characters — and the moments and relationships between characters — above everything," said the show's producer, Shawn Levy. "If we stop being character-anchored, and we become pure genre, I think we take the beating heart out of Stranger Things, and we take the thing that people maybe don't write articles about the most, but I think it's what they love the most — these characters on screen."

Matt Duffer added: "It's not necessarily going to be bigger in scale. What I am really excited about is giving these characters an interesting journey to go on."

Because the actors playing the children are ageing it's also expected series three will start a year after series two ends.

Matt told The Hollywood Reporter: "Even if we wanted to hop into the action faster, we couldn't. Our kids are ageing.

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"We can only write and produce the show so fast. They're going to be almost a year older by the time we start shooting season three. It provides certain challenges. You can't start right after season two ended.

"It forces you to do a time jump. But what I like is that it makes you evolve the show."

The gang will be off to High School next year and along with that comes drama, puberty and more girl trouble. While Lucas, Mike and even Will (who was that girl at the school dance and will she be joining the 'party'?) may have already figured out the latter, we reckon season 3 will see Dustin blossom into Steve's mini me.

Oh, and surely Nancy and Jonathan will finally become official? Although we'll always be #TeamSteve after his heroic role in season 2.

As for bad boy Billy, we reckon there's a lot more to him than meets the eye. Will he start an affair with Mrs Wheeler (aka Mike and Nancy's mum) or will he have a bad-boy-one-good type transition like Steve?

"There will definitely be more Erica in Season 3,” Ross Duffer told Yahoo. “That is the fun thing about the show — you discover stuff as you’re filming. We were able to integrate more of her in, but not as much you want because the story [was] already going. ‘We got to use more Erica’ — that was one of the first things we said in the writers’ room.”